Amazon

Northeast Ohioans knew the rise of online retailer Amazon in shopping patterns from the flood of cardboard boxes popping up on porches and apartment mail stops throughout the region the last few years.

However, Amazon's impact — and some of its benefit — hit home here in a big way in 2017 as the juggernaut and its real estate vendor, Atlanta-based Seefried Industrial Properties, bought sites to build two really big boxes in Northeast Ohio.

Together the buildings are large enough to put 26 NFL fields under their roofs.

And those millions in buying land and building are all being spent in the name of infrastructure. They are part of the titan's reach to provide prompt delivery across what online companies refer to as the last mile of distribution to serve the population center that is Northeast Ohio.

Moreover, effectively serving the region meant putting properties close to town rather than on the outer fringe, near population centers that provide both customers and employees as the two properties together will hire more than 3,000 workers. It also just so happened finding sites transformed two big problem properties with the just-launched razing of Euclid Square Mall in Euclid and accelerating beyond its developer's wildest dreams the repurposing of Randall Park Mall in North Randall to industrial use.

Although millions of public investments in terms of state job credits and bonds from the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority to snag low interest rates and federal tax enhancements are supporting the projects, the impact of eliminating the problem properties in two strokes cannot be overstated.

North Randall Mayor David Smith used the word "generation" when discussing the Amazon project because it redefined the future of his community.

"Words cannot begin to express what Amazon's commitment to the development of its fulfillment center means for the Village of North Randall," he said.

And Randall Park Mall already was demolished and four years along in the process of redevelopment when the Amazon option surfaced.

In Euclid, the city had already won a substantial Amazon investment. The Seattle firm had leased more than 65,000 square feet in a building at Bluestone Industrial Park, which Ray Fogg Corporate Properties installed in converting the site of a former massive copper plant to dirt for industrial redevelopment.

But Euclid Square Mall had been troublesome for years. No clear alternative to rejuvenate it was apparent. Then Amazon lightning struck.

"We are thrilled to welcome Amazon and Seefried to the City of Euclid," was the way Euclid mayor Kirsten Holzheimer Gail put it when the official word came out in September. "The Euclid Square Mall site has been a prime target of our redevelopment efforts. While some saw a vacant mall, we saw an opportunity for growth and development."

Sanjay Shah, Amazon's vice president of North America customer fulfillment, in a news release pointed out the growth in Ohio is due to its workforce and "incredible customers."

Amazon said it already has 55 such fulfillment centers in operation around the nation.

And the work? In both locations, the company said its associates will pick, pack and ship customer items such as electronics, books, housewares and toys.

Amazon made other impacts on the region as well. Last spring, it opened a pick-up store in downtown Cleveland, an area where every retail addition is a victory.

Cleveland also put in a bid in the online company's quest to find a second location in the U.S. Competition is intense, but at least the city had the chutzpah to join 237 other localities hoping to land the economic plum — and challenge.

Insiders note that Amazon has only said it will make an announcement about HQ2 in 2018. After 2017, it's good to have something else to watch for as well as the filling of all those jobs in the region.

But it's also good to note the basics. By the numbers, there will be an 880,000-square-foot warehouse in North Randall and a 650,000-square-foot property in Euclid. Their scale rivals the region's massive industrial plants.

Amazon is adding a new layer of big boxes to the region for a new era.

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